The eastward current that forms the northern part of the North Pacific subtropical gyre. It originates from the Kuroshio Extension east of the Emperor Seamounts (170°W) and maintains the Arctic Polar Front with the Aleutian or Pacific Subarctic Current, with which it experiences much mixing as it proceeds eastward. A broad band of flow some 2000 km wide, it feeds its water into the California Current on approaching the North American coast.